Tag: CNN

Cable news ratings, March 2, 2010: Check out the highlights, and see the full ratings below:

• Bill O’Reilly had the top-rated cable news program Tuesday night, in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic, with his colleague Glenn Beck as the clear #2. Nancy Grace and Lawrence O’Donnell (on Countdown) had the top non-FNC show in the demo and total viewers.

Check out all the ratings below, and leave your own thoughts in the comments:

Still searching for a permanent host for “This Week,” ABC News is in talks with Christiane Amanpour, the CNN foreign correspondent known more for globe-trotting reporting than talking politics within the Beltway.

Amanpour, through a CNN spokesperson, declined to comment, but sources with knowledge of the hiring process say she’s now in the mix of internal and external candidates.

ABC wouldn’t comment either but told Calderone the network “talked to lots of people inside and outside.” That’s an understatement. So far, my money’s still onTerry Moran, with Jake Tapper as the #2 choice. But from within ABC, Jon Karl, Elizabeth Vargas and Barbara Walters have all guest hosted, and Gwen Ifill’s name has been thrown out as a possibility as well (so has Ted Koppel’s but that appears to no longer be an option).

We asked former MSNBC General Manager and current disclosure-worthy interviewee Dan Abrams for his take on a potential outsider like Amanpour taking the job:

ABC is in a tough spot. At every network, the Washington team believes they “know politics” and have better political contacts than anyone else. So if they go outside of ABC News for This Week, they may inherit a great host along with a major morale problem.

Calderone tweets Tapper will be back as anchor on March 14. And it continues…

Cable news ratings, March 1, 2010: Check out the highlights, and see the full ratings below:

• Lawrence O’Donnell is filling in for Countdown host Keith Olbermann all this week, and he started the week on Monday as the top-rated non-FNC cable news how in total viewers and the A25-54 demographic.

• Bill O’Reilly was again #1 on cable news in both categories – reaching more than four million total viewers.

Check out all the ratings below, and leave your own thoughts in the comments:

CNN’s John King spent 2009 driving around the country and visiting every state as part of his State of the Union show.

Well the Twitter scavenger hunt is over, and King tweeted the video preview for the new program this morning – John King, USA (a road-trip-themed name) debuts March 22.

In the preview (below), King describes the name as “a little bit uncomfortable for me,” since it contains his name. Also, of the strong political focus: “I was already deep in like, and I feel in love.”

Although he’ll be anchoring primarily from D.C., the year he spent traveling the country will translate to a focus in the new 7pmET show:

We will always have people out roaming the country, we will always have people looking for good stories out there you cannot cover national politics just by being in Washington D.C.

When we interviewed King in November about his new show, he described the takeaway from his travels: “The country is a very complicated jigsaw puzzle,” he said. But will the ‘ordinary American’ focus, coupled with an objective news-focused show, bring the Everytown, USA viewers to John King, USA? We’ll see. One problem will be keeping it exciting for politics junkies while interesting for the more casual viewer.

But really, it boils down to separation from the rest of the CNN news-focused programming, which hasn’t been succeeding at the level CNN needs.

We were all looking forward to hearing what former House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel would be saying on Larry King Live tonight. Considering the massive amount of controversy and back-and-forth that’s gone along with his temporary resignation after allegations of suspicious money displacement and corporate bribery were brought up earlier this week, a spot with Larry King may have been the best PR move for the NY congressman. Alas, it is not to be, as Rangel backed out of his appearance 5 hours before he was scheduled to sit down with the CNN host.

Of course, this message was announced in the most professional way possible:

Rangel’s last second replacement will be Nick Schuyler, the survivor of last year’s boating accident in Tampa that left 2 NFL players dead.

The whispers that former foreign policy adviser during the Bush administration Dan Senor will be running for New York Senate as a Republican are getting louder – and that means preemptive follow-up questions.

Senor’s wife is CNN anchor Campbell Brown, and the New York Post is asking what may happen to her role if Senor decides to jump in the race.

Senor is now being talked about in Republican circles as the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination after Daily News owner and real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman took himself out of the running Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Brown has been having her own problems with her nightly show, which airs opposite Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News Channel.

CNN isn’t talking (“We don’t comment on hypothetical situations” they told the Post), but the implication about Brown’s “own problems” relate more broadly to CNN’s lower ratings in prime time. While Brown’s 8pmET show has seen some historic lows recently, the entire prime time line-up, including Larry King and Anderson Cooper, are seeing major declines (and actually Brown’s show is down less year-to-year than the other two). And CNN’s 8pmET hour hasn’t seen strong ratings (when compared to the other cable networks) since long before Brown got there.

But if Senor does run, it could allow CNN the chance to change Brown’s role and try something new in prime time. It wouldn’t be unprecedented – Maria Shriver left NBC when her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger became CA Governor (but not while he ran). And Andrea Mitchell remained a reporter for NBC News while her husband Alan Greenspan was Fed Chairman. Still, Brown is tasked with covering politics an hour each night – and as CNN fights to remain purely objective, it could be viewed as a snag for Brown to continue in her nightly anchor role.

Where would CNN go to find a replacement? If it’s short-term (the span of Senor’s run), it would have to be internal, and there are no immediately obvious fill-in anchors. American Morning anchor John Roberts sometimes fills in, as does Ali Velshi, now anchoring in the afternoon. Or maybe the CBS/CNN partnership could expand further – and a CBS anchor could temporarily step in.

Of course, with the way things are going here in New York, the better likelihood is Senor won’t run anyway.

All she has to do is from time to time remind the viewers her husband is running for office. Viewers are smart. Viewers can make their own decisions as to what weight to give what Campbell Brown has to say on a particular political issue or story – they just need to be informed that her husband is seeking office. Once it is common knowledge that her husband is running, she can trim back the reminder to the viewers. A conflict is hidden information, not disclosed information. The only ones who think she can’t do the job are the ones who think viewers are stupid or simply don’t like her.

PS – women, believe it or not, don’t take marching orders from spouses (neither do men!) You don’t get to where Campbell Brown is by not having your own thoughts and your own will.

So when they faced off on Larry King Live last night, why was it so…calm?

“My esteemed colleague from Minnesota is entirely wrong,” said Grayson early in the debate, which was billed in the lower third as a “Health Care Showdown.” But beyond that, it stayed entirely focused on the key points from each side. “Why can’t you come together on this?” asked King, as each member of Congress stuck strong to their talking points.

The one point of contention came when Bachmann asked about why the White House gave a “judgeship to a brother of a member of Congress,” while Pres. Obama was “twisting his arm” about his health care vote. (Politico sheds more light on this.) Grayson called it a “weapon of mass distraction” while Bachmann cut in: “Corruption isn’t a distraction, corruption is an issue, we need to know if he’s corrupt.”

CNN has made it a point to continue as the only non-partisan, hard news cable news network during prime time hours. But it doesn’t mean there can’t be some fireworks when two very partisan (and previously unafraid to go a little off the talking points reservation) guests come on to debate an issue both are certainly passionate about. King kept each in check, and the result was a reasoned, but talking point-filled discussion. Maybe with the health care bill almost reaching a boiling point, this is the tone each side wants to set. But it wasn’t the showdown anyone expected.

Posts navigation

SeriouslyMedia is curated by Keith Teare. The top Media blogs are monitored. It is intended as a convenience for those who want to monitor the ever-changing Media ecosystem - both in terms of the events, the people and the ideas underlying their activities.
For more information see http://s.erious.ly or chat with me live through chat.center at chat.center/kteare